Having obtained a Scientific Collecting Permit from the State of NJ, I'd like to open this opportunity for collecting up to any members of the MAKA group who might be interested. We will be seeking several native killiefish including the RainWater Killiefish (Lucania parva), Spotfin Killiefish (Fundulus luciae), Banded Killiefish (Fundulus diaphanus), Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) and Starhead Topminnow Fundulus dispar) as well as other fishes (Black-Banded Sunfish, Blue-Spotted Sunfish, etc.) found in the area. With our collections, we will be donating a portion of them to the NJ Meadowlands Environmental Center for educational purposes.<br /><br />The permit is effective as of May 1st, through June 30th, 2008, and the trip will be on a Saturday that's best suited to the majority. As such, a date(s) will be selected determined by which Saturday is most popular with the participants, with a back-up date also selected as a rain date in the event the first date gets washed out. If there's enough interest, we could extend this into two trips. There is only one Saturday on which this trip will not be run (due to a prior-arranged NJAS field trip elsewere), and that is May 17th.<br /><br />If interested, please notify me (at < <a href="mailto:SevenSpringss@wmconnect.com">SevenSpringss@wmconnect.com</a> >) at your earliest convenience as to what dates would best suit you. Details will then be forthcoming for those going. Many thanks, Ray Wetzel (#08273)

Due to some personal issues, Lonny Langione has stepped down as chairman of the Membership committee. That role will be taken over by Jim Randall, another member of the committee. Please contact Jim if you have questions about membership. His contact information is listed on the site. Click on the link to Join the AKA at the top of this page.

The AKA would like to thank Lonny for the hard work he has done in the last few years as chairman of this demanding committee.

The results for the West Coast Weekend XVI (2007) show are available. Please use the link below to display the results.

North East Weekend 2007

Northeast Weekend (NEW 2007) will be hosted by the Keystone Killy Group (KKG) and Chesapeake Area Killifish Club (CAKC) the weekend of 5-7 October (Columbus Day weekend) at the same location as in previous years, the Comfort Inn in Latham, NY (20 Airpark Blvd - Albany Airport). A block of rooms has been set aside at $79 night + tax, call (518)-783-1900 for reservations.

NEW 2007 has been sanctioned and will feature seven competition classes: North American killies, South American non-annuals, South American annuals, Old World annuals, Fundulopanchax, Aphyosemions, and All Other Old World.

The entry fee is $2 each for the first 5 pairs only, fee waived if auctioned. The auction split is 75% to the seller, auction to begin at 11 AM on Sunday. Entries are due by 12 noon on Saturday. Contact Dave Koran (killie@killifish.net) if you will mail in entries for arrangements.

Table sales are available on Saturday AM with $1 to the hosts per fish item sold. The program consists of Saturday AM workshops, afternoon talks: Richard Pierce - Killifish of Madagascar, Mark DelRaso - Integtrating Climate Information into Breeding Killies, Dave Koran - Aphanius Overview and Maintenance, Andre Carletto - Brazilian Killifish Update, and Charlie Nunziata on Saturday evening on Nothobranchius. The workshop registration fee is $18, Saturday evening banquet $22 (notification needed by September 29th). Registrations should be sent to Dave Koran (see page 2 for contact info). Additional POC's are: KKG - Lee Harper (leeh920226@aol.com) and CAKC
- Mike Brem (mbrem@usa.net).

At the 2007 AKA convention in Milwaukee, WI, the BOT awarded the convention for 2009 to Northwest Killies. The convention will be held in Portland, Oregon. It will be a collaborative effort of the west coasts clubs, which inlcudes SCKC, BAKA, NWK, PSKA and VAKC. We would like to encourage all of you to consider coming to Oregon for a vacation, even if it is just a few days, preceding the convention. Oregon is a beautiful place to visit and May is an especially nice time to do so.

Please review the presentation that we made to the BOT and to attendees at the 2007 convention, which has been converted to web format. You can access it via the Conventions menu item in the left column.

See you in Portland in 2009!

Barry Cooper
for Northwest Killies

A few members have not yet received the May-Aug. double issue of JAKA (Vol. 39, No. 3 & 4) that was mailed out about one month ago. We have investigated the matter and thefacts are as follows:

1. Starting with this double issue, JAKA is now being mailed out by a mailing house in Memphis and they receive the copies of the journal directly from the printer (also in Memphis) within a day of printing. The mailing house then prepares them for mailing within another day or two and delivers them to the Post Office. The mailing house obtains the members' addresses from the online membership database, so the list is always up to date.

2. To date, we are aware of six members who did not receive this issue of JAKA by this mailing process. Arrangements have been made for replacement copies to be sent to all six. In one of these cases, it would appear that the member's name was inadvertently omitted from the online membership listing, which constitutes the source of addresses for the mailing. This has since been rectified. All others' addresses were in the database.

3. The mailing house delivered 763 domestic copies to the post office on Friday, December 29, 2006. Note that issues sent to members outside of the US are sent first class mail and have not been included in this figure. Withthe exception of the single member whose name was inadvertently omitted from the membership database, all problems of non-receipt have involved domestic addresses.

4. The P.O. sent a receipt to the mailing house acknowledging that they received 763 pieces of domestic mail on that date.

5. The P.O. claims to have actually mailed them all on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2006.

6. Clearly, the problem does not lie with the mailing house nor (with the exception of one member) does it lie with the source of address data. It would appear that the problem is with the USPS Memphis Bulk Mailing Center. The mailing house will be taking the matter up with the P.O. on our behalf and requesting an investigation.

7. If there are any members, other than those who have already contacted us about missing JAKAs, who have not yet received the JAKA issue in question, please contact Dick Martino directly for replacement copies. These will besent to you by first class mail. All excess copies of JAKA have been sent to Dick Martino who normally handles the distribution of back-issues.

While this problem is not widespread we, the Editors of JAKA, are fully aware that not receiving a copy of JAKA can be an annoying and frustrating experience. We apologise for that but, as you can see from the above, it wasdue to circumstances completely beyond our control.
___________________________________
Brian Watters
Associate Editor

The speaker lineup for West Coast Weekend XVI, to be held in Portland, Oregon on the weekend of April 28-29 has been finalized. The speakers are:

John Rosenstock: "Memories of Africa: 30 years of collecting Nothobranchius"
Steffen Hellner: tentative title "Collecting in Gabon"
Brian Perkins: "Collecting in Peru - a video presentation"
Dr. Brian Watters: "Killifish of Zambia and the Caprivi"
Dr. Tim Miller-Morgan: tentative title "Fish and aquarium health"

In addition, we are hoping to have an informal showing of some raw video footage from a trip to Zambia this year, to be shown by Dr. Barry Cooper after dinner on Saturday evening.

This promises to be a great show, with terrific speakers. We you many of you will make the trek to beautiful Portland, Oregon.